Sep 14 Run Mario Run

Last week it was all about iPads, iWatchs and all things iPhone 7. The biggest news however came from a new third-party partner with the surprise appearance by Mr. Nintendo himself, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Shigeru Miyamoto, lead creator of Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, shocked the world by showing up at Apple's big iPhone 7 event to unveil Nintendo's first iOS Mario game, Super Mario Run.

Shigeru Miyamoto walked onto the Apple event stage greeted by a massive amount of applause and gasps on what Nintendo is officially bringing to the iOS. In true Miyamoto fashion, the flagship marquee Nintendo character Mario is coming to the IOS in a new Mario Run game. The live demo showed off the new games graphics and game mechanics, all of which looked like a standard run game that you have seen before. The major difference is that Nintendo is producing this game specifically for the IOS (and android) which is a FIRST for them. This means that Mario Run will be a solid game both on graphicsand game mechanics. Yes there are a ton of faux "Nintendo" games on iOS(as well as emulators) and I'm sure Nintendo is doing its best to remove these "faux games" in anticipation for the Mario Run release later this year.

Other prominent gaming companies have already branched out into mobile gaming so one can say with confidence that Nintendo is late to this party. Games like Minecraft have moved from PC/Consoles to mobile with GREAT SUCCESS. In-fact triple AAA companies like Bethesda have created mobile games to hype up there console/PC releases, i.e. the success of Fallout Shelter on mobile to the release of Fallout 4. Hitman did this with Hitman Go and so on. The reverse is true with Plant and Zombies starting out on mobile but found a home on all major consoles.

Looking at the bigger picture what does this mean for mobile gaming? Mario Run will NOT be free. Nintendo has been up front in saying this will be a one time download with no in-game purchasing so the user can enjoy this game in its entirety. How will current games like Clash of Clans react to Nintendo finally stepping up in the mobile arena? Will pre-orders start happening for mobile games? Will companies like Blizzard pursue mobile gaming and translate games like World of Warcraft or Heathstone? Will eSports be played on mobile games? Will Apple TV compete with Playstation and Microsoft?

What we can say for sure is the introduction of Nintendo onto the mobile scene will dramatically change the landscape of mobile gaming.